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Pennsylvania special House election too close to call; 3,900 absentee ballots to be counted

The Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone remains too close to call and will not be called until tomorrow, according to the Associated Press. Local elections officials still counting absentee ballots as of late Tuesday.

Some absentee ballots were not expected to be counted until Wednesday morning, and the final result could be decided by a recount.

State officials say there are about 3,900 absentee ballots still to be counted.

Nearly three hours after polls closed and with 99 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial results had Lamb leading Saccone by 847 votes, as he rode a wave of Democratic enthusiasm in a district that President Trump won by 20 points a mere 16 months ago.

Regardless of who is declared the winner, the result is expected to raise Democratic hopes of taking back the House in November’s midterm elections and shake Republican self-assurance that their new tax law is an omnipotent offense and defense against the so-called “blue wave.”

“These results should terrify Republicans. Despite their home field advantage and the millions of dollars outside groups poured into this race, Republicans found that their attacks against Conor, including their unpopular tax scam, were not believable,” Ben Ray, the DCCC chairman, said in a statement.

Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, ran up big margins against Saccone, 60, in wealthy Allegheny County and was holding his own in GOP-leaning Westmoreland, Washington and Greene counties.

This is a local race … I don’t think it has anything to do with the president.

– Conor Lamb, Democratic House candidate

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Wanda Murren told Fox News the race would not have a mandatory recount. Under state law, three voters in each precinct must petition for a recount and petitions must be filed five days after each county completes its tally.

Lamb insisted that Trump was not the main issue in the race. But the close margin is another setback for the president following Democratic Sen. Doug Jones’ victory in December’s Alabama special election.

“We were executing a plan that we came up with a long time ago that had nothing to do with the president,” Lamb told reporters after voting Tuesday morning. “This is a local race … I don’t think it has anything to do with the president.”

By contrast, Saccone had vowed that he would be Trump’s “wingman,” telling Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that the president “needs some help down there [in Washington].”

The president visited the district twice to campaign for Saccone, once in January and again on Saturday night in a rollicking rally that recalled Trump’s own 2016 campaign.

“Do me a favor, get out on Tuesday,” Trump said immediately after greeting the crowd. “Vote for Rick Saccone, and we can leave right now.” Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway also visited the district.

But Saccone struggled to raise money and stir the same passions that helped Trump sweep the industrial Midwest on his way to the White House. According to Federal Election Commission records, Lamb raised more than $3.3 million since the start of 2018, compared to $703,000 for Saccone.

Meanwhile, national groups aligned with Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other Washington Republicans poured roughly $9 million on the race, filling airwaves and social media with depictions of Lamb as little more than a lemming for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Lamb countered with an ad calling it all “a big lie” since he’d already declared he wouldn’t support Pelosi as floor leader, much less a return to the speaker’s rostrum. He added his opposition to major new gun restrictions — though he backs expanded background checks — and declared himself personally opposed to abortion, despite his support for its legality.

By contrast, Lamb hammered the new GOP tax law as a giveaway to corporations at the certain future expense of Social Security, Medicare and the nation’s fiscal security. Lamb also embraced unions, highlighting Saccone’s anti-labor record at the statehouse. The AFL-CIO counts 87,000 votes from union households — around a fifth of the electorate.

In a bid to lock up that key voting bloc, Democrats called in former Vice President Joe Biden to stump for Lamb.

“You said you want your piece of the sidewalk,” Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, told a group of union workers last week. ”Hell, you own the sidewalk.” Biden has also said that Lamb reminds him of his late son, Beau, an Iraq War veteran and former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, which stretches from the affluent Pittsburgh suburbs into deep Pennsylvania steel and coal country, had been held by Republican Tim Murphy since 2003. But Murphy was forced to resign in October amid revelations of an extramarital affair in which he urged his lover to get an abortion when they thought she was pregnant.

Lamb and Saccone could face off again in November – though they may not meet in the same district. In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional district boundaries were unfairly gerrymandered to aid Republicans.

The Democrat-controlled court has drawn a new map that puts Saccone and Lamb’s homes in separate districts. However, the matter is now in the hands of a three-judge federal panel, which is considering an appeal by Republican lawmakers.